Ever wanted to videochat with the Nigerian prince who wants you to move his offshore gold? This is the next best thing. The Letters (信) is a solo show featuring the fictional authors of spam that artist Yu Cheng-ta (余政達) chose from his inbox. His exhibition is a multi-channel video installation that shows actors reading and improvising on the letters. All actors were found through Facebook and match the reported physical descriptions of the writers: There’s a dying Kuwaiti widow, the son of a Libyan prime minister, an Asian woman, an Irish salesman and an African banker inviting you to join him in international crime. The actors work to make spam visible, so that viewers can confront racial stereotypes that global enterprises employ for their financial gain.
■ Chi-wen Gallery, 3F, 19, Ln 252, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段252巷19號3樓), tel: (02) 8771-3372. Open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Dec. 14
Photo courtesy of National Palace Museum
The X-Man is a solo exhibition by Nick Veasey, a British artist who specializes in X-ray photography. Using industrial radiographic imaging equipment, Veasey captures below-the-surface views of a rose, a French cornet and other objects. One image, of a Boeing 777, was achieved by knitting together hundreds of scans. These photos expose delicate inner workings that are ordinarily invisible to the human eye, baring their man- or nature-made design.
■ Bluerider Art, 9F, 25-1, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (北市仁愛路四段25-1號9樓), tel: (02) 2752-2238, open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 6pm
■ Artist talk tomorrow at 3:30pm. Opens Sunday. Until Jan. 12
photo courtesy of Yi&C cONTEMPORARY aRT
Contiguous Zone (領海) is a group show of nine Japanese artists bringing newfangled curiosities of mainstream contemporary art. Miki Kubota transforms 2D tattoo illustrations into 3D sculptures, using a crafty combination of photography and printing; Takahiro Hirabayashi has invented an eerie portrait aesthetic that trades heavily on bruises and wounds. Other works on view include sculpture, block prints and acrylic paintings that — as the exhibition’s title suggests — sit on their genre’s border, with ambitions to reshape it with their techniques and visual vocabulary.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣藝廊), 141 Minzu W Rd, Taipei City (台北市民族西路141號), tel: (02) 2599-1171. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6:30pm
■ Opening party tomorrow at 7:30pm. Until Dec. 1
Delve into the story of Mona Lisa’s creation, theft, recovery and influence at Leonardo-Mona Lisa-The Myths (蒙娜麗莎500年:達文西傳奇) in the National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院). The original isn’t there, though select da Vinci pieces including Virgin of the Rocks and Leda and the Swan provide context for the hyper-famous work.
■ Library Building, National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院圖書文獻大樓), 221 Zhishan Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市至善路二段221號), tel: (02) 2881-2021. Open daily from 9am to 5pm
■ Until Feb. 10
Memories of a Stray Dog (野犬記憶) is a solo exhibition featuring street photographer Daido Moriyama (b.1938). Moriyama has gained cult status in Japan for high-contrast, rough-particle images that he takes quickly and without using a viewfinder. He is the titular stray dog, and his work records the grimmer aspects of city life. Yi&C Contemporary Art (易雅居當代空間館) brings together Moriyama’s early series Provoke (挑釁, 1968), New York (1971), Tight (網襪, 1987) and Tiles (磁磚, 1987), as well as more recent prints, Rolling Stones and Hawaii Dog.
■ Yi&C Contemporary Art, 22, Ln 252, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段252巷22號), tel: (02) 2781-3131. Open Mondays to Fridays from 10am to 7pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 2pm to 6pm
■ Until Dec. 7
Last week, Viola Zhou published a marvelous deep dive into the culture clash between Taiwanese boss mentality and American labor practices at the Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) plant in Arizona in Rest of World. “The American engineers complained of rigid, counterproductive hierarchies at the company,” while the Taiwanese said American workers aren’t dedicated. The article is a delight, but what it is depicting is the clash between a work culture that offers employee autonomy and at least nods at work-life balance, and one that runs on hierarchical discipline enforced by chickenshit. And it runs on chickenshit because chickenshit is a cultural
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
When picturing Tainan, what typically comes to mind is charming alleyways, Japanese architecture and world-class cuisine. But look beyond the fray, through stained glass windows and sliding bookcases, and there exists a thriving speakeasy subculture, where innovative mixologists ply their trade, serving exquisite concoctions and unique flavor profiles to rival any city in Taiwan. Speakeasies hail from the prohibition era of 1920s America. When alcohol was outlawed, people took their business to hidden establishments; requiring patrons to use hushed tones — speak easy — to conceal their illegal activities. Nowadays legal, speakeasy bars are simply hidden bars, often found behind bookcases